Digital White Papers

I L T A W H I T E P A P E R | K N O W L E D G E M A N A G E M E N T 25 M A K I N G I T I N T O T H E C I R C L E O F T R U S T : H O W M A R K E T I N G A N D B U S I N E S S D E V E L O P M E N T S Y S T E M S C A N H E L P intention of meeting that contact. This requires that the CRM system records relationship information and that there's a way of identifying related contacts from an event acceptance list. From a contact's perspective, someone who has taken the opportunity to find out that they are attending an event and made the effort to meet them shows respect. For a more formal meeting, taking the time to research the relationship between the firm and a contact is essential. It's particularly important to find out who else has had contact with them recently and what they learned, as this implies that the contact is important enough to come up in conversation between two people at the firm. Again, the requirement here is that the system "knows" that a meeting is coming up and gathers all of the relevant data from all systems and presents them in an easy to consume digest. The digest would include information from CRM, marketing, PMS etc. as well as public news sources, automatically sending this to anyone from the firm who's attending the meeting. The importance of following up Finally, once a piece of work is done, the temptation is to move on to the next client without as much as a backwards glance. This misses the opportunity to further strengthen a relationship. Gaining feedback is an important part of demonstrating that you care about the experience a client had, especially if something has not gone well. All clients should get the chance to give feedback no matter their position. If a client takes time to complete feedback, engage with them and deal with any issues. If remedial action is needed, promise little and deliver more to convert a detractor into a promotor. The feedback mechanism needs to be triggered automatically by a key event in the system (e.g. matter closure, final bill etc.). The system needs to alert the relevant person that feedback's been given and must provide the capability to let them record that it's been dealt with and how. In cases where feedback has not been dealt with, an appropriate automatic escalation path needs to be followed. In conclusion, a deep relationship between the firm and its contacts is essential to win and retain clients. Key to this is the client's perception that the firm is one that respects them and cares about them as an individual. Properly applied and used, client relationship technolo can prove very valuable in helping individuals in the firm to build and support that perception. ILTA Simon Elven is the Commercial and Marketing Director at Tikit. He has been with Tikit for 24 years and was a founding member of the company. Much of Simon's early work was with document management systems, later moving to CRM systems and their application for business development. In his role as Commercial and Marketing Director Simon has to practice what he formerly preached. As one of its key users, Simon has a deep understanding of Tikit's Marketing & Business Development ecosystem and plays a key role in its overall strategy.

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